Hi (name)

This is how most business e-mails in English start out: with a simple greeting ("Hi", "Good morning", "Hello") and the recipient's first name:

Hi Lana,
Can you send me the proposal we discussed yesterday?

Thanks,
Liz

Depending on your culture, this might seem too casual for business e-mail, but this is the most appropriate style for writing to someone within your own company. It even works for writing to people outside of your company if you know them or if your e-mail is just about something simple.

It's (nice/good/great) to hear from you.

Write this when someone who you haven't communicated with in a long time writes to you. It's a polite way to show that you're happy to communicate with this person.

For example, imagine that you get an email from a colleague in a different department at work who you last spoke with two weeks ago. You can write back:

Hello Kumail,
It's nice to hear from you.

You can also use this phrase when you're talking on the telephone with someone who you haven't spoken to in a long time.